Chock another one up for the big guy. According to news reports, American burger chain (make that powerhouse) McDonald’s has just won a five-year legal battle against a tiny Malaysian restaurant called “McCurry.” A London newspaper reports that attorneys for the fast-food giant persuaded a judge that potential customers might confuse “McCurry” with McDonald’s.
“McCurry” is a 24-hour open-air restaurant, which “serves spicy fish-head curries, tandoori chicken and other Indian delicacies on a street corner in Malaysia,” under a large neon “McCurry” sign. According to court documents, McDonald’s claimed: “The defendant’s use of the word “McCurry” and employing signage featuring colors distinctive of the plaintiff’s was indulging in acts that could rise to confusion and deception.”
Personally, it sounds like a bunch a legal mumbo jumbo. What’s more, the owners of the curry house maintained that they never intended to dupe passers-by into thinking they were a McDonald’s; rather they argued that “McCurry” was just an abbreviation for “Malaysian Chicken Curry.”
The bottom line for the “McCurry” owners is this: the court ordered them to drop the “Mc” from their signage. However, a local Malaysian news agency said the restaurant planned to appeal the ruling. Personally, I am glad they are. Granted, I have never been to Malaysia, and I haven’t walked passed the “McCurry,” but I think it would be safe to say that if I did I would not mistaken an “open-air restaurant” that serves “spicy fish-head curries” as an American burger joint.
I do realize that McDonald’s restaurants outside of the United States feature regional fare on their menus. (In fact, they do so within the United States as well. At the McDonald’s in Hawaii you can order Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice for breakfast and an Asian inspired soup called saimin for lunch.) My point is simply this: Here’s this tiny restaurant in Malaysia that gets hauled into court by a mega-giant like McDonald’s and is now forced to shell out who knows how much money to change their name and their signage because of a court order.
Fair or unfair? What do you think?